With every release revealing another side of her songwriting, Essex-born artist Chrissi announces her debut album, I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME ! set for release October 16 via Black Butter Records, alongside the album’s striking title track and the final single ahead of its arrival.
Sometimes, when life brings you to a crossroads, the only option is to trust your gut. For Chrissi, that instinct has shaped the making of I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME ! The album traces the messy territory between love and loss, self-doubt and self-discovery, finding humour, tenderness and clarity in the experiences that have shaped her.
At the centre of the album is its title track, a song about the contradiction of knowing something is hurting you while still desperately wanting it to stay. ‘I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME !’ moves through codependency, self-destruction and the difficulty of letting go, finding Chrissi caught between wanting to sever the tie and the part of herself that still cannot bear to.
“‘I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME !’ is about codependency and my personal inability to let go of anything without leaving claw marks, but trying to let go and do better,” explains Chrissi.
The song arrived during Chrissi’s first studio session after six months away from music. Following the discovery that her ex-boyfriend had been lying to her throughout their relationship, she had convinced herself that he was the only person who would ever love her. Returning to the studio, ‘I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME !’ offered a different perspective. What began as heartbreak became a way of understanding herself, and eventually, a way forward.
The album takes that story and opens it out. I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME ! is a record about falling in love, struggling to leave, and learning what it means to grow from girlhood into womanhood while navigating the experiences that shape you along the way.
“I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME ! is the full story of the song on a larger scale, going into my moments of feeling in love and why it was hard to sever the tie. It also covers my experience as a girl growing into womanhood and still trying to navigate all the negative experiences that come with it.” comments Chrissi.
I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME !:
- PUCKER UP!
- HEARTLESS DARLIN’!
- HARD LAUNCH
- JOSEPHINE!
- I HATE YOU DON’T LEAVE ME!
- PAPER MAN!
- THE SCARIEST PART!
- ONE IN FIVE!
- APOLOGY JEWELLERY!
- SEVEN MONTHS CLEAN!
- WISHING YOU WELL!
